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New advisors will help U of T forge stronger links with the city

Shauna Brail will help promote urban engagement, while John Brodhead will aid in forging new partnerships beyond the campus.

Shauna Brail is a senior lecturer in the urban studies program at the University of Toronto, and is President Meric Gertler's new advisor on urban engagement. (Courtesy Johnny Guatto, U of T)

John Broadhead is executive director of Evergreen CityWorks, a national charity that works to build green cities and engage citizens and connect decision-makers to make cities more livable. He is U of T President Meric Gertler's new advisor on urban issues. (Courtesy Johnny Guatto, U of T)

University of Toronto president Meric Gertler has named two special advisors on urban issues to help him deepen the links between the city and the campus. (Randy Risling / Toronto Star)

Even “city-building” champion Meric Gertler, president of the University of Toronto, knows this hot buzzword needs breaking down for the public — especially as he announces two new advisors on city-building and the university.

“I hear the term all the time, and I would define it by the contribution we make to finding solutions to urban challenges, from transportation or poverty to environmental challenges,” said the head of Canada’s largest university, who has just named two fellow urban boosters to advise the U of T on how to link city and campus more closely.

Urban studies professor Shauna Brail will work as presidential advisor on urban engagement, helping bring urban experts across the U of T’s three campuses together to work more closely on urban issues across their fields of expertise, from medicine, law, business, engineering and education to arts and science.

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“To me, city-building means better engagement with urban issues, but so many issues are connected — transit is weakest where poverty is the greatest, for example,” said Brail, who will continue to teach half-time and work the other half in her new advisory role. She hopes to organize U of T experts into discussion “tables” to brainstorm on particular urban issues, and also hopes to provide U of T students more opportunities to work on real-life city problems.

Whereas Brail will generate a focus on city issues within campus, John Brodhead will build partnerships with the university from the outside. As executive director of Evergreen CityWorks, a group that helps local governments, researchers and community groups promote more liveable cities, he will advise Gertler on building new partnerships with outside organizations.

“The university has all these great brains, and we want to make sure some of their great ideas get into the system and improve our city,” said Brodhead, who will keep his position with Evergreen CityWorks and receive a modest honorarium for his U of T post.

With the help of both advisors, Gertler said he hopes Torontonians get to know more of its experts beyond current superstar pundits such as Richard Florida (creative classes), David Hulchanski (poverty) and Eric Miller (transportation.)

“They’re just the tip of the iceberg. We’d really love more of our faculty to become actively engaged in developing urban policy,” said Gertler. As the value of oil falls, for example, and Canada turns to cities to stimulate future prosperity, universities with their broad range of experts can be key in finding ways to do that in ways that benefit everyone equally.

Said Brodhead: “Universities are such powerful organizations; it’s great to be involved in helping the U of T shape the city and find ways to keep the streets safe, make transit work better and build the housing we need.

“It’s pretty cool.”

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